Research Engineer - Chem-Bio (AI Safety Institute)

We expect candidates of varying levels of experience to apply and will likely fill two positions - one senior engineering lead who mentors and develops the overall Chem-Bio engineering team, and one research engineer who leads on the development and deployment of our automated evaluations (question-and-answer-based and task-based). In both roles, you'll be working closely with the senior research scientist on the team (e.g. a leading research scientist with experience across chem-bio subject matter and ML), workstream leads (a biotech PhD with multiple years of management consulting and Venture Capital experience and a biosecurity expert) as well as the more junior members of the team (scientists, research engineers, and delivery leads managing, e.g., external contractors who are developing questions or tasks for us).

Within your team you're expected to provide thought-leadership and mentorship on best-practice research engineering, as well as creative solutions to complex technical problems. You'll spend most of your time doing collaborative research and writing production-quality research code. All of this is done within an extremely collaborative environment, where everyone does a bit of everything, and we love to pair & mob code!

You'll receive mentorship and coaching both from your manager, and the wider AISI team of world-famous researchers and other incredible staff (including alumni from DeepMind, OpenAI and ML professors from Oxford and Cambridge)., The interview process may vary candidate to candidate, however, you should expect a typical process to include some technical proficiency tests, discussions with a cross-section of our team at AISI (including non-technical staff), conversations with your workstream lead. The process will culminate in a conversation with members of the senior team here at AISI.

Sift and interview process

This is not a definitive list, candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:-

• Coding test


• Initial interview


• Technical take home test


• Second interview and review of take home test


• Third stage interview


• Final stage interview, If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.


Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.,
• UK nationals


• nationals of the Republic of Ireland


• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK


• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)


• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)


• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020


• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  We are looking for someone with the following skills, experience, and attitudes.


• Substantial experience working as an engineer, where you oversee teams writing production quality code, as well as designing, shipping, and maintaining complex tech products. For this position we would expect a minimum of ~4-6 years experience in relevant roles.


• Extensive Python experience, including understanding the intricacies of the language, the good vs. Bad Pythonic ways of doing things and much of the wider ecosystem/tooling.


• Experience working within multi-disciplinary teams to ship high quality products at pace. For more senior candidates, experience overseeing a team of capable engineers.


• A proven track record of building software systems to meet research requirements and have led or been a significant contributor to complex software projects.


• Ability to work in a self-directed way with high agency, thriving in a constantly changing environment and a steadily growing team, while figuring out the best and most efficient ways to solve a particular problem


• Bring your own voice and experience but also an eagerness to support your colleagues together with a willingness to do whatever is necessary for the team's success and find new ways of getting things done within government


• Possess a strong curiosity in understanding AI systems and studying the security implications of this technology


• Motivated to conduct research that is not only curiosity driven but also solves concrete open questions in governance and policy making.


• Strong written and verbal communication skills.


• For more senior candidates, the ability to provide technical mentorship and help more junior engineers grow their skill-set and challenge themselves. A proven track record of improving capability and standards across a team in a positive way.


The following are also nice-to-have:

You'll get extensive coaching on any of these that you don't have, as they are all essential to you succeeding in the role.

• Experience working with a world-class research team comprised of both scientists and engineers (e.g. in a top-3 lab).


• Comprehensive understanding of large language models (e.g. GPT-4). This includes both a broad understanding of the literature, as well as hands-on experience with things like pre-training or fine tuning LLMs.


• Experience working at the intersection of ML with the natural sciences.


• Direct research experience (e.g. PhD in a technical field and/or spotlight papers at NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR).


Core requirements

• You should be able to spend at least 4 days per week on working with us


• You should be able to join us for at least 12 months


• You should be able work from our office in London (Whitehall) for parts of the week, but we provide flexibility for remote work, Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit in 2023 because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government.

We have ambitious goals and need to move fast.

• Develop and conduct evaluations on advanced AI systems. We will characterise safety-relevant capabilities, understand the safety and security of systems, and assess their societal impacts.


• Develop novel tools for AI governance. We will create practical frameworks and novel methods to evaluate the safety and societal impacts of advanced AI systems, and anticipate how future technical safety research will feed into AI governance.


• Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include stakeholders such as policymakers and international partners.


Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, start-ups and the UK government, and ML professors from leading universities. We are now calling on the world's top technical talent to join us. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level.

As more powerful models are expected to hit the market over the course of 2024, AISI's mission to push for safe and responsible development and deployment of AI is more important than ever.

What we value:

• Diverse Perspectives: We believe that a range of experiences and backgrounds is essential to our success. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us in this crucial mission.


• Collaborative Spirit: We thrive on teamwork and open collaboration, valuing every contribution, big or small.


• Innovation and Impact: We are dedicated to making a real-world difference in the field of frontier AI safety and capability, and we encourage innovative thinking and bold ideas.


• Our Inclusive Environment: We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions., The mission of the Chem-Bio team is to minimise surprise to the UK and humanity from rapid and unexpected advances in AI, specifically at the intersection of AI with Chemistry and Biology.


The way our team does this is by building evaluations to understand where and how AI might enable easier, faster, or completely novel progress in Chemistry or Biology. For instance, we evaluate whether an AI system can enable humans to conduct scientific work that would usually require expertise the human lacks - e.g., a novice acting like a PhD-level expert. We evaluate such AI capabilities using automated question-and-answer benchmarks, longer form tasks, and randomized controlled trials involving human participants.

We closely work with other teams within the AI Safety Institute and wider UK government to make sure our research has real-world impacts on AI safety and biosecurity through policy recommendations.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.


• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%.


• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.


• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.


• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.


• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.


Things you need to know